From Axios (link: https://www.axios.com/2024/06/07/health-care-worker-shortages-us-crisis0:
Demoralized doctors and nurses are leaving the field, hospitals are sounding the alarm about workforce shortages and employees are increasingly unionizing and even going on strike in high-profile disputes with their employers.
Why it matters:
Dire forecasts of health care worker shortages often look to a decade or more from now, but the pandemic — and its ongoing fallout — has already ushered in a volatile era of dissatisfied workers and understaffed health care facilities.
Some workers and experts say understaffing is, in some cases, the result of intentional cost cutting. Regardless, patients' access to care and the quality of that care are at risk.
"There are 83 million Americans today who don't have access to primary care," said Jesse Ehrenfeld, president of the American Medical Association. "The problem is here. It's acute in rural parts of the country, it's acute in underserved communities."
The big picture:
Complaints about understaffing, administrative burdens and inadequate wages aren't new, but they are getting much louder — and more health workers are leaving their jobs or cutting back their hours.
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